Teachers, students weigh in on importance of healthy diet

May 29, 2006|ERIN MILLER Tribune Staff Writer

LAKEVILLE -- Kelly Adams' family is busy. She and her husband, J.D., work full time at Monaco Coach Corp. in Elkhart. Her 12-year-old son plays soccer, baseball and basketball. The couple also has an 18-month-old son, Jacob, who keeps them on the run.Their busy schedule takes its toll at mealtime. "When you don't get home from work until late, it's easy to grab fast food," Adams says on a recent sunny Sunday afternoon at Newton Park. "That's something we just started to work on. We haven't been very nutrition conscious." The family is gearing up their exercise with activities such as walking to supplement the healthier meals they're trying to eat. And Adams makes sure to read the menus her older son, Josh Chrisman, brings home from LaVille Elementary School, where he's in the sixth grade. She has her concerns. "I don't like how they have so much free rein on à la carte," Adams says. "I send enough lunch money for the month. When it runs out, I know -- too much free rein." It was at the urging of such concerned parents that the school phased out candy bar fundraisers and brought in food-free prizes. LaVille Elementary principal John Farthing says the school's cafeteria has traded junk food for yogurt and 100 percent juice, and there's a plan now to provide kids with pedometers to show them how far they walk in a day. LaVille is taking on the tough job of teaching students healthier habits both inside and outside the cafeteria. When it comes to prizes, "we have everything from baseball cards, football cards to stuffed animals, just about everything," Farthing says. "I think more and more, kids prefer the non-candy." Twelve-year-old Josh isn't so sure. "They offer prizes, but lots of kids take candy." Lessons go both ways And parents can take a lesson from what children learned in Brunette Mihail's Walkerton Elementary School sixth-grade classroom. Four days a week, children in her class snacked on fruits and vegetables. The kids, she says, came to clamor for kiwis and gobbled up standards such as strawberries and oranges provided by a federal grant. But just like adults, when there's a choice, they may not pick what's best for them. "If all that's available is the apple, you'll eat the apple. If you have potato chips or chocolate chip cookies, that's what you'll eat." Focusing attention on such topics as diet and exercise has become more difficult during her 25 years of teaching as new testing requirements have come into play, Mihail says. She used to take students for a walk around the school nearly every morning. "I don't take the time to do that anymore because of the standards," Mihail says. "I know it's still better for them. They're sharper, more alert (if they get a break for physical activity)." Yet amid the mandates, some school systems are making healthy living lessons a priority. Karen Case, food and nutrition specialist for South Bend Community School Corp., regularly visits classrooms to introduce new foods and talk about good eating habits. (After a grant brought new choices to one primary center, its cafeteria manager reported fruit and vegetable consumption was up at lunch.) She has older primary center students keep food diaries and works with high school students to understand portion control. "They pour a bowl of cereal to see what they're eating for breakfast," Case says. "It usually ends up being two-and-a-half times the portion it says on the box. ... (And) they don't think about nutrition at all." Communicating early The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that there is a steady decline in diet quality as children grow into adolescence. "I know this isn't good for lunch," 17-year-old Tricia Fullmer says, indicating her meal of Sunchips and a bottle of water. "The hot lunch has all the food groups, or is supposed to," the John Glenn High School student says. And what about the consequences? "I don't eat healthy," 16-year-old Conrad Schubert says. "I just work out a lot." "If you're in sports, you can eat anything you want," Conrad says.Kaitlyn Miller, a ninth-grader at John Glenn and member of the track team, understands that's not always true. "Our family is known for being overweight, and we were kind of tired of that," the 15-year-old says. Kaitlyn relies on her dad to help her out when she feels like she's stuck in a rut. If she wants pop, she'll ask her dad what she might drink that won't hurt her diet but satisfy the craving. The strategy and support seem to be working. In two-and-a-half months, Kaitlyn has lost about 30 pounds, she says, and she's not tired of the plan. Junior Margaux Tucker's parents, who are runners, and her grandparents, who are still physically active even though they're in their 70s, have helped her to consider her food choices carefully. "There are temptations," the 17-year-old athlete says. "At the same time, whatever my mom buys, we have to eat. I don't have the option of eating unhealthy because I don't have that in my house." Individual differences And a good teacher can always make a difference, even without a formal emphasis on curriculum. Carolyn Ort, who teaches sixth grade at LaVille Elementary, walks a couple of miles each morning, completing laps around the gym or in the hallway. Her students know about the daily routine. If she thinks a child isn't getting enough exercise, Ort might invite him or her to walk laps around the playground during recess. "You try to do things to encourage them," she says. Niles Senior High School English teacher Ryan Bigelow works health topics into class discussions and assignments. Every day at about 10:30 a.m., Bigelow heads to the cafeteria, where he grabs a tray and waits in line. Most days, he opts for the hot lunch entree. Bigelow's nutrition habits are leftovers from a childhood when fresh veggies were a staple on the dinner table. "Those things carried over to adulthood." In the lunch line, he watches what the teens around him eat. "In the Niles High School cafeteria, the No. 1 thing eaten is french fries," he says. "There's a line out the door for french fries." Bigelow worries about the increasing rates of diabetes and hypoglycemia among youths. That's why food-related issues crop up as topics for his daily journal assignments. In class, he talks about how nutritionally bankrupt items such as french fries and soda are and how a poor diet will cause students to fatigue easier. One of his students is working to eliminate foods containing a lot of preservatives and is trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. Another who had a sports injury remembered a class discussion about how a proper diet can help a body perform better and heal. Bigelow directed him to a Web site with more information. Bigelow also tries to stress to students how their eating habits now could very well come back to haunt them in the future. "It's different when you're 26, 27, 28," he says. "It's difficult to change habits then, but if you establish them when you're young, they carry over." Staff writer Melissa Jackson contributed to this story.